Pershore Town survived 20 minutes with 10 men as Danny Murphy's brace saw them beat Long Crendon 3-1 to extend their lead at the top of the Hellenic League Division One. 

Murphy scored right at the end of the first-half to give The Plums the lead after a frustrating opening 45 minutes for the league leaders. 

Murphy then scrambled home a second in the 54th minute before Daniel Pounds came off the bench to halve the deficit for the visitors. 

Jake Donnely was then shown a straight red card for his reaction to an off-the-ball incident but despite being a man-light, Jordan Jones headed home from a Petar Tonchev cross to re-establish the two-goal lead.

Wild celebrations ensued before Danny Janes' side stood firm for the remainder of the encounter to seal a vital three points in their title quest.

"It is another three points and we are a tiny step closer to the objectives we set at the start of the season," said Janes.

"Long Crendon made things really difficult for us, their defensive shape and rotation on transition when they won the ball back asked questions of us.

"We were always in control of the game, but the attacking side of our game needed to be much better in that first half. 

"Second half we started a lot better in terms of the areas that needed to improve. We get the second goal to give us that cushion, but Long Crendon then capitalise on a mistake to give them an opportunity.

"The game then became stop-start as tempers started to flare. I liked our aggressiveness but I felt we started to lose focus, players needed to step back as we were 2-1 up and in control.

"We go down to ten men and we have 20 minutes to play. I actually felt the players responded superbly and still controlled those 20 minutes, the third goal then kills the game and it is job done."

Whilst Pershore were winning again, there were more dropped points for nearest rivals Milton United, who were held to a 0-0 draw at FC Stratford. Pershore are three clear of second-placed Hartpury having played three games fewer and ten points ahead of Milton, who have one game in hand. 

Pershore are nine games from the championship but a hectic couple of months will test them immensely. They play every three days throughout the rest of March (seven games) and then six through April, which includes cup games.